Word: caa
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Contrary to the unbuttoned, indulgent style at many agencies, CAA operates with the crisp, well-coordinated teamwork of a Japanese high-tech firm. What adds to the agency's mystique is that Ovitz is extremely press shy. In the first extended interview he has ever given, he described his agency's unusual philosophy to TIME correspondent Elaine Dutka: "Some companies believe that internal competition helps the bottom line, but I'm not of that school. We try to take the paternal approach of the Japanese, who take care of their own, and temper that with Western creativity and ingenuity...
Ovitz, who shares power with CAA co-founders Ron Meyer, 44, and Bill Haber, 46, has shown an uncanny touch for putting stories and stars together. The agency had a hand in assembling the elements of four current box-office hits: Rain Man, Mississippi Burning, Twins and Scrooged. Among its TV successes are Golden Girls and Beauty and the Beast. Says Barry Diller, chief executive of Fox Inc.: "CAA represents a lot of good people, and is very aggressive in how they link them to each other. It's all about selling, and they're very good...
Clients appreciate the fact that Ovitz not only pampers them but also teaches them to become more self-sufficient. Says actress Sally Field, a CAA client: "We used to be totally helpless, talking about what lessons to take or how thin we'd got our thighs while we waited for the phone to ring. Michael encouraged me to pick up the phone and develop my own projects. He told me, 'Be your own studio...
Since stories are the indispensable raw material of show business, CAA has built a development department that generates ideas for its clients. Ovitz has cultivated close ties with Manhattan gliterary agent Morton Janklow, who represents such best-selling authors s Judith Krantz, Danielle Steel and Jackie Collins. That collaboration has produced some 100 hours of network mini-series. Now Ovitz hopes to work an even richer literary vein. In December Janklow announced a surprise merger with longtime ICM literary agent Lynn Nesbit, whose clients include Tom Wolfe, Ann Beattie and Michael Crichton. According to sources close to the negotiations...
...premed student at UCLA, Ovitz worked part time at Universal Studios. After graduating in 1968, he landed a job in the mail room at the William Morris agency. Within a year, he was promoted to agent. Six years later, he and four other young colleagues quit to form CAA with only a $21,000 bank loan. Says Ovitz: "Of course I was scared. I was barely 27 at the time. We didn't take a paycheck for almost two years. Our wives took turns serving as secretaries. In the early years, I couldn't get a good table...